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[miles]

The thing is, how is it offensive to play golf in one country beacuse it was the anniversary of a plane crash in another country?  I'm thinking something awful happend on every calendar day of the year somewhere in the world.

I think about this all the time. But, and I know nothing about the situation, when you're the leader of the free world you have to act like you care when someone like that dies. He's the head of state, it's in his job description. I don't find it offensive but it's certainly unwise. And if there was a pattern of this kind of behavior, I may question his ability to do this job. Again, I know nothing about the situation and I absolutely don't think Obama has an issue here.

[jay-ell]

I'm not touching that with a 10 foot...

...pole.

I don't know any ten foot poles, but I have a cousin who is, like, 6'10".

[AugustWest]

I don't know any ten foot poles, but I have a cousin who is, like, 6'10".

/rimshot

[Victoria Waterfield]

Oh... wow.  When you repeatedly say you would have posted something regardless of who it was about, it starts to make me think the opposite, you know?  Is this woman saying she posts every article she reads about every "offensive" thing every person of note does?

The thing is, how is it offensive to play golf in one country beacuse it was the anniversary of a plane crash in another country?  I'm thinking something awful happend on every calendar day of the year somewhere in the world.  

Likewise, how is it offensive to state that a horrible thing happened and related it to it's location?  There were Canadian internment camps where our Japanese citizens were held during WWII and it's awful that such a thing occured.  I take no offense to these camps being called Canadian internment camps - it's where they were located - and I'm confused as to why it would be wrong to be clear about the where these camps were...  Stating a location doesn't equal the finger of guilt pointed at an entire nation.  It just doesn't.  

How many poles, Ash?

It's rightly considered offensive by many Poles, and the Canadian internment camp example is in no way comparable. It's correct to refer to those camps as Canadian internment camps because they were built and run by the Canadian government. The "Polish" death camps, on the other hand, were built and run by the Nazi Germans. The idea is, referring to the Nazi concentration camps as "Polish" death camps, even though it's geographically accurate, assigns some of the guilt of their existence to the Polish people, at least on a subconscious level. There's a whole Wikipedia article about it.

[Doc]

When I read it, having no history of the discussion, my first thought was that they were camps that were in Poland and therefore probably primarily contained Poles. So if anything it made me sympathetic.

[pmcd9]

It's rightly considered offensive by many Poles, and the Canadian internment camp example is in no way comparable. It's correct to refer to those camps as Canadian internment camps because they were built and run by the Canadian government. The "Polish" death camps, on the other hand, were built and run by the Nazi Germans. The idea is, referring to the Nazi concentration camps as "Polish" death camps, even though it's geographically accurate, assigns some of the guilt of their existence to the Polish people, at least on a subconscious level. There's a whole Wikipedia article about it.

I get that it is offensive, but does intention mean anything? I know that the President gets briefed on this kind of thing, but is it possible that this simply got past him. I certainly didn't know, did you, or did you Google it after the fact? Do you believe that the President actually meant to assign guilt to the Polish people for the concentration camps? Does anybody? Or is this, as I originally stated, an overreaction, a tempest in a teapot, a ginned up excuse for Obama haters to be outraged over?

[Victoria Waterfield]

...would be perfectly happy making screen-door jokes...

My curiosity is piqued by these "screen door" jokes. Samples?

[Arachno-capitalist]

VM from grandma:
'Please don't call the hospital. My phone, computer, and tv are off, they're all bundled so one of the satellites must be off. I'm using a neighbors phone, I don't know what their number is. We went to the cable office and they couldn't help us. Call us back.'

[miles]

The thing is, how is it offensive to play golf in one country beacuse it was the anniversary of a plane crash in another country?  I'm thinking something awful happend on every calendar day of the year somewhere in the world.

After VW's reading insightful posts I read through all of this again, and just want to clarify that my previous reply to your post was written under the impression that Obama golfed on the day of the funeral of the President of Poland and not on the anniversary of the plane crash. If it was just the anniversary, I totally agree with you.

[Victoria Waterfield]

My curiosity is piqued by these "screen door" jokes. Samples?




« Last Edit: June 01, 2012, 08:51:59 AM by Asherdan »

Dammit man, way to make me momentarily think I somehow got so drunk that I no longer recognised I was replying to something I'd posted myself.

Anyway, "screen door" joke is merely my perhaps-too-elliptical way of referring to one of the standard jokes about Polish people, concerning the allegedly shoddy craftsmanship of Polish submarines.

[Choop]

że nie jest śmieszne

[pmcd9]

Not quite sure where to begin with this one.

[linnea]

It's rightly considered offensive by many Poles, and the Canadian internment camp example is in no way comparable. It's correct to refer to those camps as Canadian internment camps because they were built and run by the Canadian government. The "Polish" death camps, on the other hand, were built and run by the Nazi Germans. The idea is, referring to the Nazi concentration camps as "Polish" death camps, even though it's geographically accurate, assigns some of the guilt of their existence to the Polish people, at least on a subconscious level. There's a whole Wikipedia article about it.

Yes, but you know how Wikipedia articles are written, right? Many Polish people knew what was happening. They were kapos in the camps, helped build the camps, and helped run the camps. Not every Pole is guilty of collaboration, but the ones who cooperated with the Nazi regime certainly are.

[miles]

Not quite sure where to begin with this one.

Well if it's in National Geographic, it must be true. But I wonder if whoever created that image is just mocking the whole "if it's from the earth it must be good" attitude.

I read recently that the risk of developing lung cancer from smoking weed is vastly underestimated. Cypress Hill lied to me.

[Victoria Waterfield]

Yes, but you know how Wikipedia articles are written, right? Many Polish people knew what was happening. They were kapos in the camps, helped build the camps, and helped run the camps. Not every Pole is guilty of collaboration, but the ones who cooperated with the Nazi regime certainly are.

Yes, quite a lot of Poles did collaborate with the Nazis, and they are obviously guilty of collaboration as a result. On the other hand, there are also more Righteous Among The Nations from Poland than from any other country, despite the fact that the punishment for aiding Jews was more severe in Poland than in any other occupied country. And surely it's fair to note that there wouldn't have been any death camps in Poland if the Nazis hadn't invaded the country and built them.